Pilates Training & TRX Training

 

Pilates classes and private Pilates training sessions are available to be brought on-site to all organizations and in-home as well as all of our other programs and services.

What is “Pilates Training”?

• Overall Benefits
• The History of Pilates
• Pilates Mat Programs
• Areas addressed in classes

What is “Pilates Training”?

Pilates Training tends to be described as combination of Yoga, Tai Chi, aerobics and weight training, which promotes correct posture by focusing on the core postural muscles, which are indispensable whether you sit at a desk 9 to 5 or are an athlete.

Through proper breathing, correct muscle use and coordination, Pilates techniques increase core muscle balance and spinal support by focusing on strengthening and stretching the intrinsic muscles that support all functional and sports movement. Pilates builds core strength through the entire torso known as the “Powerhouse” starting from shoulder, rib cage, abdominals and down to the pelvis. At the same time, it increases flexibility in many parts of the body that tend to be rigid from lack of flexibility training or overdeveloped muscles that may occur from excessive strength training or over-training of one muscle group due to a specific sport or any repetitive movement.

Pilates reeducates the body from the inside out. When you balance the body from the inside out, every move you make is more efficient, effective, stronger and safer. Pilates techniques are not just exercises, they are a series of controlled movements engaging your body and mind that improves how your body functions, looks and feels, used to achieve optimal functional fitness. Pilates techniques encourage a balanced, long, lean, trim and toned body. Many people credit Pilates with adding an inch or more to their height, not to mention less back stress.

Overall benefits include:

• Relaxation and stress reduction through proper use of one’s breath
• Improved mental and physical control of the body, retaining neural pathways and creating physical grace of movement
• Challenging exercise with no impact that balances muscle length, strength and flexibility
• Strengthens the shoulder region, abdominal and back muscles that helps stabilize the spine and protect the lower back
• Promotes mental focusing and centering to improve movement efficiency and muscle control
• Awareness and improvement of neutral spine alignment, or proper posture, throughout all movement and increases peripheral mobility
• Development of the deep muscles of the back, shoulder region, abdominal and pelvic region
• Increased mental and physical stamina and energy Improves balance, coordination & circulation
• Improves sports performance
• Compliments other methods of exercise
• Can be customized for everyone from rehab patients to elite athletes
• Re-balances the muscles around the joints, corrects over-training and muscle imbalances that can lead to injury

The History of Pilates

Pilates is a body mind exercise system developed by Joseph Pilates. He was a sickly child who suffered from Rheumatic Heart Disease and other afflictions. To strengthen himself, Joseph Pilates became very active in boxing, skiing, diving, gymnastics and was a circus performer. During World War I he was a nurse in the hospital (today’s role would be closely related to a Physical Therapist). Joseph Pilates “exercised” and rehabilitated his patients through a series of exercises done in bed with special equipment he designed. He also exercised detainees at night. What was significant about this was that it was during the time of Spanish influenza where many millions of people died worldwide, no one in Joseph Pilate’s care died.

In the 1920s, the legendary physical trainer and founder of the Pilates Studio™, Joseph H. Pilates, brought his techniques to New York. Joseph Pilates’ exercises focused on improving flexibility and strength for the total body without building bulk by using the equipment designs he used during the war. Not surprisingly, some of the first people to use Pilates techniques were dancers such as Martha Graham and George Balanchine. Joseph H. Pilates designed more than 500 specific exercises using five major pieces of unique apparatus to develop the body. In the tradition of Joseph H. Pilates, who believed that mental health and physical health were essential to one another, research helped to refine and articulate our already meaningful assumptions, intuitions, and perceptions that Pilates techniques are truly is a mind-body technique. Research also investigates and examines long-held claims that Pilates techniques of body conditioning can help heal injuries, improve alignment, concentration, and breathing, in addition to increasing flexibility, strength, balance, muscle tone, energy, and mental concentration. Another important value of conducting research about Pilates techniques of body conditioning was to investigate and substantiate Joseph H. Pilates’ original beliefs about human mind-body interaction.

Starting in the 1980’s Pilates re-emerged and are currently used internationally by individuals at all levels of fitness, as well as by dance companies, Broadway shows, students at performing arts schools and universities, sports teams, spa clients, and fitness enthusiasts at private health clubs and gyms.

Pilates Mat Programs

Usually taught as part of a group class, mat exercises primarily focus on strengthening the muscles of the shoulder, trunk, hip and pelvis as well as increasing the flexibility of the same areas through deep breathing and smooth, long movements that encourage your muscles to tense, relax and lengthen. Pilates is three-dimensional (movement in all movement planes) and concentrates on concentric/eccentric contraction for increased injury prevention and muscle balance. Unlike yoga, which requires moving from one static posture to another without repetitions, Pilates flows through a series of movements that are dynamic, systemic and anatomically based. While the scope of a mat program is limited compared to the Pilates machines, there are many mat exercises that illustrate the Pilates principles.

Lately, Pilates has emerged with other movement techniques, such as yoga, or use of an exercise ball or resistance bands. This promotes creative integration of the Pilate’s principles into a greater range of exercises in the mat class.

Areas addressed in classes:

• Breathing
• Pelvic placement
• Rib-cage placement
• Scapular movement
• Head and Cervical spine placement

What is TRX Training?

The TRX Suspension Trainer leverages gravity and your body weight to perform hundreds of exercises. You’re in control of how much you want to challenge yourself on each exercise – because you can simply adjust your body position to add or decrease resistance.

The TRX Suspension Trainer:

Delivers a fast, effective total-body workout
Helps build core stability to enhance all of your other fitness activities
Increases muscular endurance
Benefits people of all fitness levels (pro athletes to seniors)
Can be set-up anywhere (gym, home, hotel or outside)

By utilizing your own bodyweight, the TRX Suspension Trainer provides greater performance and functionality than large exercise machines costing thousands of dollars.

All fitness levels can train on the TRX: From everyday people who just want to feel and look their best to some of the world’s most elite athletes. The TRX is used routinely by all four branches of the military, and can be found in the locker rooms of: Major League Baseball teams, National League Baseball teams, UFC fighters, Olympic-level cyclists, swimmers & runners, in fitness centers, outdoors and NOW homes!

TRX more information